Monday, December 05, 2011

Agriculture continues to be neglected

TODAY, all eyes will be on Treasurer Don Polye, who is expected to hand
down the much-anticipated Papua New Guinea money plan for 2012.

Locals selling fresh produce at the Lae Urban
market. Greater investment in agriculture will lead to assured food security as
well as cash income for farmers

We gather it will be a balanced one,
as reportedly claimed by the Treasurer in the lead-up to it over the last few
weeks.

Of interest to the country and our international partners will not only
be the money plan itself but how balanced it is taking into consideration the all
enablers of development and growth of PNG.

Balanced or not, it is anticipated that health, education,
infrastructure, and law and order will be featured prominently, which has been
the trend over the years.

This trend is expected to be retained, while other important enablers of
growth, in particular agriculture will be pushed to the edges as usual.

While these areas are important enablers for development, we are of the
opinion that any money plan that is considered balanced should feature
agriculture among the top enablers of development and growth.

The reason: agriculture remains the backbone of the country supporting
the livelihood of over 80 % of the people.

And agriculture remains the fundamental instrument for sustainable
development and poverty reduction in the country as reported by the World
Development Report.

This will remain so for the next 50 years or so.

It is for this reason that we firmly believe that agriculture should take a clear and
central position in any development strategy including money plans.

The
agriculture sector continuous to be neglected despite many policy documents and
speeches by politicians have emphasised agriculture as the most-important
economic sub-sector.

Sowing
of paddy rice fields by students of the Pacific Adventist University. Appropriate
investment can lead to improved rice production for our own consumption as well
as export

These
claims have never been translated to actual implementations in terms of investments
and budgetary support.

Budgets
over years have not reflected its importance and the sector continuous to be
neglected.

We have maintained and will continue to
do so to emphasise the importance of the need to invest in the agriculture sector.

The
government and our major development partners have continued to consider and recognise
other sectors as enablers of growth and development and have left agriculture
out.

This
is very unfortunate as we are of the view that for any meaningful development
is to take place, it has to start in
rural areas in general, and the agriculture sector in particular.

This is simply because over 80% our people are in the
rural areas and core problems of widespread poverty, growing inequality, rapid
population growth, and rising unemployment are direct effects of stagnant and
declining economic activities.

We agree other sectors deserve investment but it
must directly compliment to investment to agriculture.

What is the use of establishing a rural health
centre when people it intends to serve have no money to pay for medicine?

We must not forget that agriculture
development is and will remain the key to rural development and improvement of
livelihoods.

It will not only deliver outcomes directly
related to increased agricultural productivity but also contributes to
necessary outcomes in other sectors such as health, education, infrastructure
and law-and-order either directly or indirectly by empowering rural communities
to look after their health and education through improved food security and
increased incomes.

It
is, therefore, very essential for us all to view agriculture as a central
sector in the country delivering long‐term
outcomes and impacts to all other sectors while other sectors can contribute
with short‐term outcomes to agricultural
development.

We
urge the national government and donor agencies to reconsider their priorities
and include agriculture on equal footing with the other sectors currently given
priorities.

We
are of the view that in reality, PNG should be investing around K400 million
per year in agriculture if the nation is to avail the real potential of the
agriculture sector for economic growth and development.

This
is as per the international recommended rate, 10% of agricultural GDP, when
agriculture in PNG contributes an estimated 37% (K4 billion) of total GDP.

The
current level of public investment is only about K190 million (including
allocations of National Agriculture Development Plans funds to districts),
which is less than 5% of the agricultural GDP.

Where
and how NADP fund is used in the district also needs some explanations.

Public
investment in research and development is equally disappointing.

The
current annual public investment in agricultural research is K30 million, which
is only 0.75% of agricultural GDP while the ideal rate is 2.0% (K80 million).

This
explains the current gap and highlights the huge scope for increasing both
public and private sector investments in agricultural research and innovations
in PNG.

The government has a duty to the smallholders and the subsistence sector
through public sector investment.

There is growing concern that PNG is not anywhere near
placing agriculture as the centre of development agenda.

Resource development such as the LNG project
and others coming on stream are good opportunities for us take affirmative
actions.

However, the current trend is not helping this
cause and not a good signal as reflected in our money plans over the years and
change of strategies by donors.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Achievements

Winner of the 2011 UNESCO/Divine Word University Award for Communication and Development.Archived in National Library of Australia PANDORA Archive. 1 million hits as of Friday, November 16, 2012; 2 million hits as of Monday, July 14, 2014; and growing...No. 1 Blog in Papua New Guinea